The SCOTUS Ruling on Same Sex Marriage

SCOTUS Same Sex Marriage Ruling
SCOTUS Same Sex Marriage Ruling

1 Thessalonians 5:8-11 KJV

But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

 

The Christian world is fairly reeling over the Supreme Court’s recent ruling over same sex marriage. Many are prophesying the next wave of persecution. Some are mourning the death of our nation. A few are pointing to the imminent coming of Jesus Christ. I am reminded that our Anabaptist forefathers preached that Christians should be wary of every government and focus instead on obedience to Jesus Christ.

 

Paul addressed the passage for our consideration to a group of believers who also saw the darkness of the days in which they lived and gave them these words of counsel:

Be sober

Don’t get crazy, fearful or panic. Level headed people handle difficult situations much better than those who lose their minds during them.

 

Don’t get angry

God has not appointed us to wrath. There will come a time when God Himself will pour out His wrath. Ours is to reach out to attempt to rescue them, not to “help God” judge them.

 

Practice faith, love and hope

In other words, fight our fight with spiritual weapons. The weapons of our warfare are still not carnal and they are still mighty.

 

Comfort one another

There will be casualties and wounded in any warfare, even spiritual ones. Comfort each other when needed.

 

Edify one another

Build up believers.

  • Encourage them
  • Equip them
  • Strengthen pray for, preach to and teach them

It is difficult to say just where all of this will lead.

  • Perhaps to the coming of Christ
  • Perhaps to a wave of persecution
  • Perhaps to a return true Christian experience

What we can know is that nothing has happened to change God’s plan.

  • Stay true
  • Stay faithful and
  • Stay in the battle for the Bible

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

Same Sex Marriage

Another “Furthermore”

1 Thessalonians 4:1 KJV

Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.

 

Furthermore…

 

In the Christian life, there is always something new:

  • To learn
  • To practice
  • To grow in

 

The Christian life is never, or should never be static.

 

No Christian should ever allow himself or herself to feel like he or she has arrived; like there is nothing else to master in the faith. This life of faith is a matter of constant advancement. To stop growing is to stop living as a Christian. We never attain perfection in this world.

 

There will always be another “furthermore “.

 

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

Christian growth

The Thing That Should Matter Most

1 Thessalonians 3:2 KJV

And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith:

 

1 Thessalonians 3:7 KJV

Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith:

 

Paul’s concern for the believers in Thessalonica compelled him to send Timothy to check on them and to comfort them in their faith. The comfort went both ways. When Timothy returned, his report concerning them and their faith became a comfort to Paul.

 

I note that Paul’s concern was not over their persecution, which they most certainly endured. He was not cold and calloused about it but realized that there was a much bigger concern than physical hardship; he was concerned for their faith.

 

That thing we ought to care most about for one another is our faith.

 

We have it turned around these days where faith is nearly thought of as a by-product of Christian life while:

  • Success
  • Prosperity and
  • Health

are thought of as the big issues.

 

We need to get things back where they belong; focus on strengthening the faith of ourselves and others while we neglect not caring for the other things.

 

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

 

Christian Care

Effective Preaching

1 Thessalonians 2:2 KJV

But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention.

 

Sometimes preaching is attached with great liberty:

  • It is obvious that the hearers are connecting with the message
  • There is a spirit among the congregation as a whole that is conducive to preaching
  • The preacher feels at home and senses an agreement among the congregation for his message.

 

Such was, I think, Paul’s experience in writing the book of Philippians.[1] Here we are reminded that, though Paul had a genuine connection with the church at Philippi, it had not been an easy ministry there. He moved then to Thessalonica where Paul’s testimony was that he preached with boldness and much contention.

 

  • Preaching there was a labor, a struggle.
  • Preaching there incited anger among his hearers.
  • Preaching there was not associated with great liberty but
  • Preaching there did produce great results.

 

The greatest opportunities for the gospel are not in those places of the greatest ease and liberty. Paul said of Ephesus that a great and effectual door had been opened to him in there and that there were many adversaries. He did not say “but” there are many adversaries.

 

I believe that the kind preaching that will change the world will most often be of that sort.

[1] I recognize this was a letter and not a sermon.

 

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

 

effective preaching

The Power of Knowing Our Master

Colossians 4:1 KJV

Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.

 

Knowledge is a powerful thing.

  • It is in knowing Christ that we are saved.
  • It is the knowledge of truth that we have confidence in our faith.
  • It is through the knowledge of the Word of God that we are perfected and matured.

 

It is in the knowledge of our Master in heaven that we learn to treat others justly.[1]

[1] I spent this time with the Lord about 6:30 AM on a jet bound for San Francisco, where I am speaking at a H.O.P.E. Addictions Ministry Conference.

 

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

 

Treat others justly

Dead Christians

Colossians 3:3 KJV

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

 

What a startling statement!

 

God warned Adam and Eve that the day they ate the fruit they were forbidden to eat that they would surely die.

 

  • The man who is not saved is dead and trespasses and sins[1]
  • The wages of sin is death[2]
  • Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death[3]
  • Death and hell are cast into the Lake of Fire[4]

 

And the Christian is – according to Paul – dead.

 

Death, in this sense then, is a mark of faith. It is a finished work. Through of the death of Jesus Christ, and His resurrection that followed, we who are believers have tasted the judgment of death and await only the resurrection to eternal life.

[1] Ephesians 2:1
[2] Romans 6:23
[3] James 1:15
[4] Revelation 20:14

 

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

Mark of faith

Nothing Better Than Christ

Colossians 2:8-10 KJV

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

 

There is, it seems, this constant urging in our flesh for something new, better, fresher.

The bondage to sin operates on this urging.

We can never indulge in a sinful practice without the risk of that practice growing into something more sinister than the sin we originally indulged in. Drug addiction, alcoholism, sexual deviation; all tend to increase in intensity over time. They can never level out. They lose their satisfaction unless they increase.

 

The advertising and sales industry rely on this urging to keep moving products

It seems like it is never enough to have a working item; we want a newer one, a faster one, a shinier one, a bigger one, a more luxurious one, one like the one our neighbor has. Cars, computers, smart phones electronic gadgets all have us craving the next one before the new smell wears off the one we have right now.

 

The sin nature tempts us to constantly seek something better than Christ

Paul warned the believers at Colosse, and through them, us, to beware of anything or anyone that would spoil our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ by enticing us to seek something better than Christ. The philosophies and traditions of men; the rudiments of the world are nothing compared to Christ, except that they prey on our sinful nature to seek something else. Paul’s message is that Christ is:

  • The fulness of the Godhead
  • The completion of the believer and
  • The head of all principality and power

There is nothing better than Christ. There is only a better walk with and love for Christ.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

sinful nature

Saved But Not Faithful

Colossians 1:2 KJV

To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

There are times in the Bible when the conjunction and is meant to weld two terms together as one as in a statement such as “the great God and our Saviour…”[1] Other times it couples two distinct entities.

 

It is difficult to determine which is the case in this verse. Bible students have differing thoughts concerning it. I tend to take the position that, if God hasn’t made something clear, then there is likely something to learn in all of the possibilities. Thus I would observe that:

Faithful brethren are saints.

Not that being faithful makes a person a saint for the term saint denotes one who has been saved and that is entirely the work of Jesus Christ. Faithfulness does not make a saint. However faithfulness can certainly help to distinguish a saint. All saints are brethren for that moment of salvation places each of us into the family of God and in brotherhood with Christ.

 

On the other hand,

Not all saints are faithful brethren[2]

It is a fact sadly observed that some of those who have been saved are not as faithful in their faith as they ought to be.

  • Some forsake the things of Christ for the world
  • Some develop a contention and go their own way
  • Some neglect the salvation that was given them

There is a relationship between the saints and the faithful brethren as they are both saved and, in this case, likely both members of this church. But there is also a sad disconnect that exists between those who are saved and not faithful and those who are saved but fully engaged in that which is Christ’s. Toward the faithful brethren Paul may thankfully pronounce grace and peace. Toward the saints who are not so faithful Paul may be praying that such grace and peace might one day be theirs as they become faithful.

[1] Titus 2:13 KJV

Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

[2] A note in Jamison Fawcett and Brown reads, “.. ‘saints’ implies union with God, so ‘the faithful brethren’ union with Christian men [Bengel].” It is possible for a man to be united with God but to not be so united with Christian men.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

Christian faithfulness

More Than A Gift

Philippians 4:14 KJV

Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction.

 

Sometimes the smallest little phrases can carry a huge amount of instruction.

 

Paul had expressed his contentedness. He was not in any spiritual way distressed over his circumstances. God’s hand upon him, in times of great supply and in times of great want, was all he really sought. However, after expressing this contentedness, he did commend the Philippians for, as he puts it, communicating “with my affliction.” He was not spiritually distressed but there was no question that he was physically suffering. Gill put it, “…he was in prison and penury”.

 

The believers in Philippi had reached out to do something about that affliction:

  • They sympathized and cared
  • They sent Epaphroditus to minister to him and
  • They sent with him things that could be a help in comforting him

Notice how Paul phrases this, “ye did communicate with me affliction.” They did more than just giving to Paul. They became sharers in the affliction. They took it on as their own.

 

This can be illustrated by considering the family of a missionary who is captured on a foreign land.[1] Those who hear of it

  • may become highly interested in the details about it; they
  • may think it is too bad and they
  • may pray for the one who is captured

But the family of that missionary shares in the affliction. Though it is a different sort of suffering than the missionary is experiencing, they suffer nonetheless. They suffer

  • with the missionary
  • at the same time as the missionary and
  • for the same reason as the missionary

 

Paul says of the Philippians that they had well done in not only communicating to him but with him.[2]

[1] Something we frequently hear of, even in our time.

[2] This lesson may be applied not only to communicating with another’s affliction but with their vision, with their calling and with their ministry. Some may give to a ministry; it is so much more helpful when the join with that ministry.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

Christian Charity

Pressing Forward to the End

Philippians 3:13-14 KJV

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

 

What a unique outlook is the apostle’s considering that he was in prison facing near certain execution. Under such circumstances a person might have spent his time looking back. Indeed, in Paul’s second letter to he does glance back to recall;

2 Timothy 4:6-8 KJV

For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:[1]

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

Paul did not view the end of his life on earth as the end of anything. Nor did he, in the shadow of his own gallows as it were, give up. He continued

  • to press forward
  • to think ahead
  • to set a mark and reach for it.

 

Hope in Christ changes how we view the final times of life. It makes every moment of breath matter. There is no time when we view life as invaluable and meaningless because the last moment on earth is one that may still be used toward the eternal moments of heaven. We live in a state of constant progression rather than reaching a point where we begin to decline because we know that, for the believer, there is no end; only a new beginning.

[1] But even in this there is a forward-looking turn as the apostle announces and for the sake of other promises.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

Eternal Rewards